the week of january 4-8, 2021
all of the winter festivals (and DC statehood now)
Welcome to Nothing for the Group, the newsletter where one dramaturg rounds up one week in theatre news, reviews, and takes.
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If you’re an artist or administrator in financial need, or if you’d like to directly support theatremakers in your community, here’s a great round-up of local and national grants and resources from Creative Capital.
new year, new look
We’re leaving my hasty logo-making skills in 2020. Thanks to Elizabeth Haley Morton for the new graphics — they were a delight to work with (especially as my contributions consisted of sending the cover of My Year of Rest and Relaxation with the note, “This vibe? Sort of?”) and I highly recommend hiring them for all your multimedia design needs.
virtual theatre
The Public’s Under the Radar Festival is free and starts streaming this week. The staggered line-up includes 600 Highwaymen’s A Thousand Ways (Part One): A Phone Call; Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall’s Capsule, directed and produced by Taibi Magar and Tyler Dobrowsky; Teatro Anónimo’s Espíritu, written and directed by Trinidad González; Javaad Alipoor’s Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran; Inua Ellams’s Borders & Crossings; Piehole’s Disclaimer; Alicia Hall Moran’s the motown project; and the Devised Theater Working Group’s INCOMING!.
The Prototype Festival streams January 8th-16th. Projects include MODULATION, the ticketed video installation Ocean Body, Ben Frost and Daniela Danz’s opera film The Murder of Halit Yozgat, Garin Nugroho’s staged song cycle The Planet – A Lament, Valgeir Sigurðsson’s “poetic fantasia/erotic nightmare-scape” Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists, and Times3 (Times x Times x Times), Pamela Z and Geoff Sobelle’s sonic exploration of Time Square.
Isaac Gomez’s radio play Wally World is now streaming at Steppenwolf Now. Co-directed by Gomez and Lili-Anne Brown, the play is a “a festive, poignant examination of finding magic in the mundane as 10 [mega-department superstore] employees do everything they can to find purpose in a place that has never seen purpose in them.”
Everyone on the internet saw it last fall, but if you missed the viral queer comedy about white gay supremacy, you’re in luck: a rebroadcast of Fake Friends’ Circle Jerk is now streaming on demand through January 17th.
Play-PerView announced its winter programming, including livestreams of Abby Rosebrock’s Blue Ridge (directed by Taibi Magar and featuring the original Off-Broadway cast), and Carla Ching’s Revenge Porn (directed by Bernardo Cubría). Peter Mark Kendall’s performance in Blue Ridge at the Atlantic is one that I think about all the time.
Danielle Mohlman’s telephone play I Should Have Called You Earlier runs January 22-24. Developed with director Wiley Basho Gorn, the 20-minute live, interactive experience is a “one-on-one telephone play where you receive a call from a half familiar stranger. Together, you’ll reflect back on an imagined past, playing games and sharing memories along the way.”
assorted news
The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust announced the 20 recipients of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Awards. The winners, who will each receive $10,000, are Ngozi Anyanwu, Lucas Baisch, Jocelyn Bioh, Christopher Chen, Jordan E. Cooper, Nathan Alan Davis, Guadalís Del Carmen, Steph Del Rosso, Erika Dickerson-Despenza, Miranda Rose Hall, Aleshea Harris, James Ijames, Candrice Jones, Hansol Jung, Anna Moench, Diana Oh, Madhuri Shekar, Sanaz Toossi, Leah Nanako Winkler, and Rhiana Yazzie.
Chicago’s Steep Theatre added 13 new members to its ensemble. The company added six new artists (director Laura Alcalá Baker; actors Debo Balogun, Chris Chmelik, Destini Huston; actor/playwright Omer Abbas Salem; scenic designer Joe Schermoly) and promoted seven artistic associates (production manager Catherine Allen, dramaturg Kristin Leahey, costume designer Emily McConnell, stage manager Jon Ravenscroft, scenic designers Dan Stratton and Chelsea M. Warren, and scenic/lighting designer Brandon Wardell.)
2021 season updates
4615 Theatre Company announced its 2021 programming, exploring theatrical storytelling via “phone calls, video games, live-action role playing, and narrative concert.” The offerings include Britt A Willis’ It’s For You, Jordan Friend’s Old Soul, and Gregory Keng Strasser’s Dark City.
things I’ve read over the last three weeks
Soraya Nadia Macdonald on the current movement to revive the Federal Theatre Project (The Undefeated)
Patricia Cohen on the looming cultural depression for arts workers (NYT)
Peter Marks on the growing labor movement organized by arts worker advocacy groups, like Be An Arts Hero (Washington Post)
New NYT critic-at-large Maya Phillips’ elegy for Brave Spirits Theater (NYT)
Amelia Parenteau on the virtual Seuls en Scène French Theater Festival (Howlround)
So many end of year and top 10 lists! My favorite round-ups were by Helen Shaw, Joey Sims, and the staff of The Exeunt.
Not gonna lie: theater news feels inconsequential when there’s a white supremacist insurrection happening in my city. I’m fine but there are many DC residents who were displaced or impacted by this week’s violence. Here are a few local organizations providing housing, transportation, meal distribution, and other resources:
If you don’t have the means to donate, call your representatives in support of DC statehood. This city isn’t just a collection of federal buildings and monuments — over 700,000 residents spent Wednesday night under curfew, as a mob of primarily out-of-town racists attempted to overthrow a government that doesn’t fully represent the people who live and work here. We deserve autonomy, equal representation, and voting rights.